Constable latest among county officials accused of wrongdoing

In 2012, Victor Trevino was one of three Harris County constables facing criminal charges, all related to money. The other cases have since been resolved, with Jack Abercia sentenced this year to probation for conducting illegal criminal background checks to raise money and with May Walker cleared after a grand jury declined to indict her on charges that she used county employees for a political fundraising event.

Trevino is now expected to go to trial this week, accused of failing to report cash contributions, diverting money from a charity he established and allowing deputies to illegally profit from delivering eviction notices.

Trevino, the Precinct 6 constable for 26 years, has said the allegations involve inadequate bookkeeping or failing to satisfy technical accounting laws.

Attorney Chip Lewis said the East End constable hopes to convince jurors that poor record keeping should not eclipse his charitable work.

"Constable Trevino, with all good intentions, created this charity to do good," Lewis said. "The problem is, they didn't have the proper bookkeeping and I think once a jury hears the facts, they'll see that this is much ado about nothing."

The three-week trial, set to kick off Thursday with jury selection, is the latest in recent years that have seen county officials, especially constables, scrutinized for alleged financial improprieties, the result usually being ousted from office but no jail time.

"There certainly seems to be skirting of ethical lines among constables in Harris County," said Mark Jones, the chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University. "There seems to be an unusually high number of cases in which it's either crystal clear or there is at least an appearance that a constable or people working for a constable engaging in illegal acts."

Harris County has eight elected constables, each of whom oversees a police force of dozens, if not hundreds of employees. Constable deputies typically patrol neighborhoods and sections of Harris County's toll road system and also serve various court documents.

In the two years since Trevino was indicted, the case has seen rounds of legal wrangling.

On Wednesday, state District Judge Susan Brown is expected to decide whether some witnesses will testify, including former KTRK investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino who was subpoenaed, apparently, to testify about interviews with Trevino.

"I'm more than willing to defend my investigation," said Dolcefino, who now runs a media strategy consulting firm. "I wouldn't have put it on TV if I hadn't thought Victor had done something wrong."

Lewis said he finds it hard to believe that prosecutors would call the firebrand to testify, and filed a motion asking the judge to prohibit turning the trial in "a three-ring-circus by television ambush."

In a motion filed to keep Dolcefino, who departed the station in 2012, from testifying, Lewis questioned the veracity of his reporting.

"ABC 13 recognized Dolcefino's hatchet pieces lacked journalistic integrity and amounted to nothing more than unsupported allegations against a longtime public servant in concert with the State," the motion states.

Assistant Harris County District Attorney Angela Weltin, who is prosecuting the case with Bill Moore, has declined to comment on the case. Harris County prosecutors typically do not comment on the eve of trial.

Lewis also filed a motion to keep out testimony from Carolyn Lopez, Trevino's bookkeeper of 25 years, arguing that she has told different stories to different investigators over the past two years, including a grand jury. Lewis is expected to argue that the bookkeeper cannot be trusted to tell the truth, because she already has given investigators different accounts about who was authorized to write checks for Trevino's charity.

This week's trial is expected to encompass only the allegation of diverting money, a third-degree felony of misapplication of fiduciary property.

If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison.

Lewis said Trevino, a former Houston police officer, did not divert any money for his personal use.

Trevino has said the money for his nonprofit, which totaled nearly $100,000 one year, was spent on charity events, like Christmas parties and boxing tournaments.

Trevino was indicted in November 2012, the same year two colleagues were accused of financial impropriety. Abercia, who led Precinct 1, resigned in January of that year under a federal corruption indictment. In January of this year, he was sentenced to three years probation for conducting illegal criminal background checks to raise money.

Also in January 2012, a Harris County grand jury declined to indict Walker on allegations the Precinct 7 constable used county employees and equipment for a political fundraising event.

Walker, like Trevino, won her Democratic primary in May 2012 and was re-elected that November.

Other elected officials also have come under scrutiny in recent years, including former Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole. The Republican resigned in 2011 as part of a plea deal after being accused of taking $100,000 in cash and gifts to steer county contracts and appointments to a friend. Eversole was sentenced to three years probation after admitting to lying to FBI agents, a felony.

Cases are still pending against four deputy constables from two different precincts who were indicted in June 2013 on charges of theft by a public servant, accused of taking money to provide security at low-income apartment complexes while they were on the clock at their county jobs.